Articles Posted by Mustang Driver

Following the sudden death of conservative rabble-rouser Andrew Breitbart, bloggers began a Be Breitbart and I Am Breitbart campaign. But muck-raking sounds like a lot of hard work and not much fun. If I am going to be anyone, it is Jim Treacher. Sure. He has a lot of fun making fun of our 44th president. He was the one who pointed out, hey, Barry ate dog. Which is more important, slopping Solyndra or eating a dog 40 years ago? Solyndra, of course. But which is more fun to write about? I get angry when I think of Solyndra. When...

The 85th Congress and President Eisenhower set up the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to explore space. Government bureaucrat James Hansen has used his position and NASA’s reputation to advance an unscientific agenda that calls for government restrictions on all major industries and any other human activity in the bane of controlling carbon dioxide production. This junk science has made him a millionaire through income outside the government. He is a rogue government agent who no one seems able to supervise. Now 50 top former and current astronauts and NASA scientists and engineers have had enough. They want this crackpot...

Al Gore is wrong. James Hansen is wrong. Michael Mann is wrong. Phil Jones is wrong. Andrew Revkin is wrong. All those smarmy, self-righteous, sanctimonious and insufferable jerks who use pseudo-science to push their stealth socialism to save the planet are dead wrong. Global warming is not killing off polar bears. “The debate about climate change and its impact on polar bears has intensified with the release of a survey that shows the bear population in a key part of northern Canada is far larger than many scientists thought, and might be growing,” the Globe and Mail in Toronto reported....

The press is circulating Republican-insiders stories again, this time saying Mr. Electable is unelectable. Don’t buy the latest spin from Democrats. Conservatives should stay calm, cool and collected. Mitt Romney is the most presidential of Republican nominees since 1988. He looks the part, he acts the part and lives the part. He has worked his way up and made it on his own even though his father was a prominent businessman and successful governor. He is the grown-up in the room whose blandness is a strikingly attractive alternative to the All Trauma Obama presidency. Over the years he has taken...

Unless you had the number 2, 4, 23, 38, 46 and Mega Ball 23 last night, you did not win the $640 million Mega Millions jackpot. Look at the bright side: You avoided paying Barack Obama $115 million in federal income taxes — and if you live in West Virginia, paying Earl Ray Tomblin $30 million in state income taxes. This is based on CBS Math with a little Surber Math used to calculate the West Virginia personal income tax. From CBS News: “The jackpot, if taken as a $462 million lump sum and after federal tax withholding, works out...

Inspired by how moderators at Lucianne and Free Republic handle comments, I refuse to let just anyone comment. Liberals who are nice are OK. Especially if they are from West Virginia or Cleveland. But then at that point they are not really trolls, just readers who disagree with me. As for actual trolls, I do not blog to be berated. As readers know, I have told a few people who are unhappy with my writing that there are a million other blogs. Go read them. Free speech means I support your right to speak on your soapbox. This is “mine.”...

Conventional wisdom hold that black support of Barack Obama is due solely to the color of his skin. I question that. To be sure, he received 95% of the black vote, but 4 years earlier, John Kerry received 89% of the black vote. That 6% difference is magnified by a noticeable increase in the black vote. But President Obama also received a slightly higher percentage of the white vote. Maybe black people overall have a different view of government from white people do. Maybe black people believe in the central government more because of their experience in the South in...

President Obama’s unconstitutional edict that the Catholic church must ignore its teachings and provide free birth control to its employees was designed to divide and conquer the nation. Unable to run for re-election on his pathetic record of spending $5 trillion more than we have, of the worst unemployment in 30 years and the loss of not one but now two wars, President Obama must divert attention from his sorry presidency. He embraced Rush Limbaugh’s calling a 30-year-old anti-Catholic campaigner a “slut.” Bristol Palin who has been called worse called Obama on it. From President Obama: “You know, I’m not...

The left’s slutwalk with Rush Limbaugh backfired badly. I know this because both Peggy Noonan and Kathleen Parker have posted columns along the line of, well, now that you mention it, Bill Maher did say things that are worse. Timing is everything in politics and comedy and it is very poor timing to accept $1 million from a millionaire potty mouth named Bill Maher who uses slurs you cannot print in the newspaper just before you rip into Rush Limbaugh for calling a woman a slut. But the problem is not Bill Maher. The problem is liberals are misogynists who...

Slowly but surely the truth is coming out about Obamacare: Conservatives were right. Conservatives said Obamacare would cost trillions. Our intellectual and moral superiors on the left sneered. The CBO reported this week that Obamacare will cost nearly $1.8 trillion in the first 10 years alone — nearly double what Democrats said it would cost. And instead of reducing the deficit, Obamacare will increase the deficit. Conservatives said Obamacare would cost people their health insurance. Our intellectual and moral superiors on the left sneered. The CBO reported this week that Obamacare already has cost 4 million people their health insurance....

Our moral and intellectual superiors who bitterly cling to their religion of global warming caused only by man have come up with a new plan to make the world a better place with fewer people. Make the people smaller. Ta-da. From Ross Andersen: The threat of global climate change has prompted us to redesign many of our technologies to be more energy-efficient. From lightweight hybrid cars to long-lasting LED’s, engineers have made well-known products smaller and less wasteful. But tinkering with our tools will only get us so far, because however smart our technologies become, the human body has its...

President Obama is twisting Democratic arms to stop the Keystone pipeline, which when built will end billionaire Warren Buffett’s railroad monopoly on shipping oil from the Bakken Oil Field in North Dakota. The billionaire investor is the second richest man in the nation and an ardent supporter of this regime. So obvious is President Obama’s opposition to allowing the pipeline to be built on his watch, that even CNN noticed. From CNN: A razor close vote is expected in the Senate Thursday on a Republican amendment to bypass the Obama administration’s objections and approve the Keystone XL pipeline, Senate aides...

One of the Kennedy twits — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — tweeted something he should not have at 5:27 PM on Tuesday. From RFK Jr: Speaking of prostitutes, big oil’s top call girl Sen Inhofe wants to kill fuel economy backed by automakers, small biz, enviros, & consumers From Steven Branum: If anyone knows what a hooker looks like, it would be a member of the degenerate Kennedy clan. From Keith: You men like Ted killed Mary Jo? From Robinswrong: Inhofe aloud bitch slap your liberal pansie ass From Christine, Creator especially after the Fluke incident this wknd – it’s...

I hemmed and hawed over this error in the Charleston Gazette’s editorial on Monday, because we all make mistakes. Besides, I am not the Gazette editorial reviewer. I write editorials for the Charleston Daily Mail, which obviously shows I have a prejudice. Still the mistake in the editorial bothered me. Maybe if the editorial board of the Charleston Gazette were not so vicious, mean-spirited and perhaps even anti-Catholic in its editorial against Rick Santorum, I might have overlooked it. Here is the error: "When Santorum’s wife miscarried, he and she brought the dead fetus home “to cuddle and sing to...

A year ago, President Obama’s re-election team bragged about raising One Beel-yun Dollars, in an effort to cow Republicans. Several prospective candidates begged off including Haley Barbour and Mitch Daniels. But now, the Obama campaign has taken back its claim (we never said that, they say with Baghdad Bob inflection) and the campaign is even cutting off Democrats. Incredibly, an incumbent White House team is now struggling to raise money despite its intense ability — and willingness — to use the power of the federal government to attack those who do not play along. Corporate executives no longer line up...

The big news this week on Capitol Hill was that Democrats are confident of taking back the House. Congressman Steve Israel, the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said: “We’ve gone from a gale force wind against us to a sustained breeze at our backs.” Hmm. That was the Financial Times report. The Hill report was less windy as it quoted Congressman Israel as saying: “We’re not there yet, we’ve got some work to do. But … we have gone from a gale-force wind against us last year to a sustained breeze at our back. I’ve never said we...

The ink is barely dry on President Obama’s Commandment that the Catholic church and everyone else provide free birth control to all employees, and already Washington state is headed for the real goal of liberals — free abortions for everyone! Nearly 40 years after the Supreme Court ruled that abortion on demand is a constitutionally protected right (voiding the right to life declared in the Declaration of Independence) the government is working on making abortion free in the name of women’s health. The proposal in Washington state would allow an opt-out for the Catholic church but it is unclear just...

Sandra Fluke is a law student at Georgetown University, a Catholic institution. She fancies herself as an expert on birth control. She wants free birth control. Now. When House Republicans would not let her testify as an expert on birth control, Democrats paraded her out and she received unabashedly favorable publicity. The Washington press loves these liberal dog-and-pony shows. From ABC: Fluke’s prepared testimony included details of fellow female students at Georgetown University who’d been denied contraceptive coverage because of the university’s Catholic affiliation. Fluke said that one of her friends experienced complications stemming from ovarian cysts that could have...

Barack Obama is a nice guy who has degrees from prestigious institutions. He speaks well and writes well, but he is nonetheless an idiot because he sees things only through the lens of himself. Where others hold a window into the world, he holds a mirror. His supporters say he plays three-dimensional chess. He cannot even play checkers. Consider his apology to Afghanistan for the accidental burning of a few Korans. Instead of calming thing down, his apology was used by the enemy to rationalize a new wave of violence in Kabul. President Obama thinks that is all A-OK. From...

It’s crunch time. I am not going to sugarcoat the news for conservatives. Hate me all you want, but Republicans have just about picked their nominee. Forget these headlines such as Paul Belaga’s “Romney Wins Michigan and Arizona, but Political Tourette’s Is Costing Him” or CNN‘s “Romney survives Michigan as all eyes turn to Super Tuesday” or the New York Daily News‘s “Mitt Romney avoids Michigan disaster, but has ‘blood on him’ heading into Super Tuesday: experts.” God does not roll dice with the universe, and neither does the Republican Party. I am looking at the plurality wins in Arizona...

Over the weekend came the exciting news that West Virginia officials have been so diligent in their work that the state now has saved $1 billion — at least on paper. “West Virginia is already reaping benefits from recent efforts to rein in public retiree health benefit costs, officials say: They expect to shrink the projected funding shortfall further, by more than $1 billion, and a Wall Street credit rating agency appears ready to praise the state’s handling of its last major liability,” reported Lawrence Messina of the Associated Press. Now $1 billion might not seem like much in other...

Everything proves global warming to the true believers. If it floods, that proves global warming. If it doesn’t rain, that proves global warming. If it is warm, that proves global warming. If it is cold, that proves global warming. And if everything proves it — nothing does really. Now we have this nonsense from the Telegraph: Climate change means autumn levels of sea ice have dropped by almost 30 percent since 1979 – but this is likely to trigger more frequent cold snaps such as those that brought blizzards to the UK earlier this month. And Arctic sea ice could...

Richard Siegmund Lindzen, 72, an atmospheric physicist at MIT, contributed to the IPCC reports of 1995 and 2001 and this week went to Parliament in Britain to address a seminar arranged by the Campaign To Repeal the Climate Change Act. James Delingpole of the Telegraph was delighted and praised the professor’s speech, which can be read in whole here. From James Delingpole: “Dick Lindzen does not need to raise his voice. He does not use hyperbole. In a tone somewhere between weariness and withering disdain, he lets the facts speak for themselves. And the facts, as he understands them, are...

As I look at the Real Clear Politics averages of the polls of the various match-ups between President Obama and the various Republican candidates, I know I am supposed to feel impending doom. But I don’t. Let’s see, the numbers this morning are: Obama 49.0% Romney 43.3% Obama 50.0% Santorum 42.5% Obama 53.0% Gingrich 39.1% Obama 48.6 % Paul 40.4% But I don’t feel doom. Here are 9 reasons why: February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September and October. A couple could copulate today and still have a baby by Election Day. President Obama’s leads of 5.7% to 13.9%...

Is Barack Obama electable? Further evidence of the erosion of President Obama’s electability comes from Iowa as the liberal Des Moines Register’s latest poll shows the president is behind 3 of the 4 remaining Republican presidential candidates by 2 to 7 points — in a state he won by 10 points in 2008. The numbers: Ron Paul 49% Barack Obama 42% Rick Santorum 48% Barack Obama 44% Mitt Romney 46% Barack Obama 44% The increasingly irrelevant Newt Gingrich is down 51%-37% to the president. Iowa is one of 11 states that are considered “toss-up” by Real Clear Politics.

The liberal apologists at the Tampa Bay Times’ PolitiFact have denied for more than 2 years that Obamacare has death panels. How it could assure us in 2009 of just what was in a law that was not finalized until 2010 is a mystery that defies the laws of chronology; maybe in addition to having the power to divine the truth in politics, the personnel of PolitiFact have the power of prophecy. If so, they should know what is next: A repudiation of the group’s labeling as Lie Of The Year the death panels. They do exist. the government will...

Remember in 2005 when President Bush proposed setting aside a small portion of Social Security in individual accounts? Democrats declared that President Bush was out to destroy Social Security. Now Democrats and Republicans alike support a reduction in what is euphemistically referred to as “the payroll tax.” It’s the Social Security tax, but if you tell people you are going to cut the Social Security tax, they realize you are cutting Social Security. So why bother collecting any of it anyway? Social Security has $2.5 trillion in IOUs squirreled away in someone’s desk in Parkersburg, West Virginia. Have Social Security...

Some advice to conservatives: Quit being dragged off into side issues. Enough with the social issues already. That just alienates people in the middle and makes it seem as if that is the sole reason conservatives want to defeat Obama this fall. It’s the economy, stupid. Liberals have lured conservatives off the bridge that they were crossing. This is what trolls do. Liberals are laying traps that conservatives are not just falling in but leaping into the trap. The whole contraceptive flapdoodle is an excellent example of trolling. Well played, Mister President. Conservatives need to get their act together. President...

There’s something about Kerry. The 5-term Democratic senator and 2004 Democratic presidential candidate seems to be looking younger by the day. A photo from the 2008 Democratic National Convention shows his face is looking pretty haggard, with bags under his eyes that are headed for Pope Benedict XVI level: Then, last month, he showed up at the White House with two black eyes and a swollen nose. The party line was a hockey puck broke his nose. From CBS: "Senator John Kerry surprised a few people at the Boston Bruins Stanley Cup ceremony at the White House Monday afternoon. The...

Lincoln County, West Virginia, is a poor place whose chief export is Chuck Yeager. What it lacks in money, Lincoln County adds in entertainment. Its elections are liar’s poker among the Democratic Party factions. There are too few Republicans to matter, and so it is the Democratic Party primaries where the cheating occurs. For 14 years, Democratic County Assessor Jerry Weaver and Democratic Circuit Clerk Greg Stowers fixed elections. The feds caught them. They went to prison. Jerry Weaver got out and decided to run for sheriff. He figured since the current sheriff Democrat Jerry Bowman and his buddy, Democratic...

I have no dog in this fight. My primary is May 8 and the way I am feeling this morning, Ron Paul is looking good. My purpose is to explain why after not winning a single public opinion poll in 2011 or January, Rick Santorum finally won one on Saturday and has won 3 out of 4 ever since (making him 4 for 5). Timing. That’s it. Timing is everything in politics and comedy, and Rick Santorum has had a better 2012 than he had a 2011. And the last time I checked, the election is in 2012, not 2011....

The trouble with situational ethics is that it leaves you with no morals and without morals it is difficult to be morally superior to anyone. This reduces liberals to whining about hypocrisy all the time by holding the other guy to his high standards and being smug about it. The irony is that in order to apply those higher standards liberals must admit that those higher standards are meaningful. If indeed adultery were nothing, they would not mention a 40-year-old affair by Henry Hyde. But cries of hypocrisy are all that is left to them. They sound a lot like...

If you cannot put away a 98-pound weakling who is clinging to the ropes, maybe you should be the one who packs it in. Republican Rick Santorum swept the Midwest on Tuesday in 3 primaries and caucuses that covered the territory Republicans must win in order to defeat Barack Obama on November 6, 2012, and rescue this nation from socialism. Santorum’s overwhelming victories in Colorado (40%), Missouri (55%) and Minnesota (45%) were stunning victories after Mitt Romney seemed to sew up the nomination a week earlier in Florida. I have been saying that Rick Santorum is more electable than Mitt...

Clint Eastwood and Chrysler ticked off plenty of conservatives who usually back the actor and director. The ad’s message is that everything is peachy keen now that taxpayers bailed out Chrysler for a second time. It is halftime in America, the ad said. That ticked off conservatives. Saying it is halftime in America is echoic of Ronald Reagan’s morning in America and is seen as a political ad for President Obama’s re-election. From Mark Steyn: “Do you know who owns almost 60% of Chrysler, this great American institution? Fiat! Yes, nothing could be more American than an Italian company that’s...

West Virginia likely will land a $2 billion cracker that will convert the “wet” natural gas in the Marcellus shale into a cheap feedstock for plastics and the like. This will be cheaper than oil-based feedstock. Not only will this mean thousands of jobs in West Virginia to run the plant, the cracker could also help revive West Virginia’s chemical industry, particularly in the Kanawha Valley (Charleston — the state’s capital and suburb of Poca). When I moved here in 1984, we had 15,000 chemical jobs. Today we are lucky if we have 1,500. Naturally, liberals oppose the cracker. They...

The new employment numbers are out and they show that unemployment fell to 8.3% in January. Woo-hoo. We added Â“243,000â€³ jobs, right? Not exactly. From Zero Hedge: Â“In January, the number of Part Time workers rose by 699K, the most ever, from 27,040K to 27,739K, the third highest number in the history of this series. How about Full time jobs? They went from 113,765 to 113,845. An 80K increase. So the epic January number of 141.6 million employed, which rose by 847K at the headline level: only about 10 % of that was full time jobs: surely an indicator of...

The decision by the management of Susan G. Komen For The Cure, a leading fund-raiser for breast cancer awareness, research and examinations, to stop giving Planned Parenthood $680,000 is about abortion politics and not money. No woman will die because of this decision because the amount of money is superfluous to both organization. This is about symbolism in the fight against abortion on demand. Pro-abortion writers are repeating misleading information from Planned Parenthood: Abortion accounts for only 3% of the services Planned Parenthood provides. Gee, if abortion is only 3% of its business, then why all the fuss? I mean,...

Will an investigation of the Nobel Peace Prize committee lead to a revocation of President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize of 2009? That is a good question as a formal inquiry has begun into the way the committee chooses its winners. The board of inquiry does have the authority to revoke Obama’s award, although that is unlikely, the Associated Press reported. The Peace Prize is awarded by a group in Norway. Swedish committees decide the other prizes. The Norwegians have drifted from the original intent of the Peace Prize. Fredrik Heffermehl, a prominent researcher and critic of the selection process, told...

AS I sat across the long table from state Sen. Dan Foster, D-Kanawha, at a meeting with the Daily Mail editorial board on Monday, one question kept rolling in my mind. Why is the answer always a new law? Foster, Delegate Don Purdue, D-Wayne, and others were pitching a bill to the editorial board. Foster, a surgeon now working as an administrator, has considered meth labs and decided the only way to reduce their number is to make West Virginians get a doctor’s prescription to buy cold medications like Sudafed that contain pseudoephedrine. He dismissed an industry plan to tighten...

I love Public Policy Polling almost as much as I like MooLattes at Dairy Queen, but the spin on its report on a recent national poll was a tad much. From Public Policy Polling: “For second straight year, PBS most trusted name in news.” Not exactly. The poll showed Fox News is the most trusted — 2 to 1 over PBS. From the poll itself: Q9 Which TV news outlet do you trust the most: ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Comedy Central, Fox News, MSNBC, NBC News, or PBS? ABC News ................................ 11% CBS News ................................. 8% CNN...................................... 12% Comedy...

Crap, I have to say something nice about the West Virginia Legislature. It ain’t easy being a curmudgeon when public officials do the right thing. But last night the state Senate passed a big tax break for construction of a cracker — a billion-dollar machine that takes natural gas and converts it into a cheap feedstock for plastic. This will mean thousands of jobs, including more than 1,000 six-figure jobs in one of the nation’s poorest states. Plus, the feedstock produced is cheaper than oil-based feedstocks, which will reduce the nation’s dependency on Middle East oil. people overlook the fact...

Call it the Joe Biden effect. Backed by a slogan swiped from Ford, the only American-based car company he did not bail out, President Obama tried to salvage his presidency last night. That may be difficult. Fox News illustrated its posting of the transcript of President Obama’s second-to-last State of the Union speech with this chart: Job Approval Approve Disapprove Spread Obama 46.0% 48.3% -2.3% Not exactly encouraging news for this year’s Committee to Re-elect Our Won (CROW). But stranger things have happened and will. His speech basically disowned the first three years of his presidency, especially on the economy....

Cynthia Nixon of “Sex In The City” fame (I finally got to see it on E years after its run on HBO; what a loathsome show about some lonely, superficial people) is gay. She said it was a choice — a statement that has angered certain people who want to stifle her free speech and dictate how she feels. First the over-reaction from John Aravosis: “It’s not a ‘choice,’ unless you consider my opting to date a guy with brown hair versus a guy with blonde hair a ‘choice,’” he writes. “It’s only a choice among flavors I already like…...

The race for the Republican Party nomination is now Newt Gingrich’s to lose. Again. What a difference 48 hours makes. On Saturday night, as the votes were being tallied in South Carolina, Nate Silver of the New York Times gave Mitt Romney a 93% chance of winning Florida. Today, Nate Silver of the New York Times gives Newt Gingrich an 86% chance of winning Florida. Huh? The first prediction was based on polls that showed Romney up by 12 (Quinnipiac), 11 (Survey USA), 22 (Rasmussen), 26 (Sunshine State News/VSS), 24 (CNN/Time) and 15 (PPP). Then came the debates last Monday...

Republicans have such good candidates this year, I do not know who to pick. But liberal Republicans like David Brooks provide a guide. Whoever they dump on most must be the best candidate. Remember, four years ago they steered us toward John McCain. And 32 years ago, what they said about Ronald Reagan… But I am jumping ahead of myself. David Brooks went on PBS and dissed Newt Gingrich. From the Daily Caller: “I think, at the end of the day, it is,” Brooks said. “The guy has, I think, a 27 percent national approval rating. He’s just unelectable. And...

That did not take long. Newt Gingrich bounced from fourth in Iowa and fourth in New Hampshire to win the South Carolina Primary, which has been won by all the previous 8 Republican nominees, dating back to Ronald Reagan in 1980. The appeal is Newt fights. He showed that twice in this week’s debates. I have been saying that the debates have been the great equalizer, as Newt and others have used it to offset Mitt Romney’s huge warchest. What a week for Newt. Coming off the New Hampshire primary, Mitt led in South Carolina by 10 points or more...

In his reckless and artless presidential debate on CNN on Thursday, John King did not mention the disastrous decision to delay indefinitely construction of the Keystone pipeline. There are two explanations for this lapse: CNN would not let him for corporate reasons or more likely, John King is incompetent. The Keystone pipeline would create thousands of union jobs and reduce U.S. dependency on Saudi oil, Venezuelan oil, and Nigerian oil. But the man who pays the piper calls the tune, and Warren Buffett is paying the piper. He will rake in millions, if not billions, by eliminating a potential rival...

The United Kingdom is a wonder place. The government gives subsidies of up to £20,000 a year to build and operate a wind turbine. From the Telegraph: “Currently about half the income generated by onshore wind farms comes in the form of a consumer subsidy.” But not only do wind farmers collect subsidies to set up and operate their turbines, the wind farmers collect to shut their turbines on windy days. From Tim Webb of the Times of London: “Wind farms are receiving millions of pounds to shut down when the weather is too windy, The Times has learnt. Dozens...

I have no objection to the word hillbilly. Man High School in southern West Virginia calls its teams the Hillbillies. The word is colorful and accurate. But when you use the word in a derogatory way to slam someone who is not a hillbilly, then I take offense. The editorial board of the Los Angeles Times did just that on Martin Luther King Day. In an editorial taking a swipe at the governor of Texas, the editorial board took a swipe at hillbillies. He is a cowboy, not a hillbilly. The editorial itself was peculiar: Rick Perry is not the...

Newt Gingrich apparently won Monday night’s debate on Fox News, but likely this is a case of a last-second touchdown when you are down by two touchdowns. Seth Leibsohn of National Review Online gave the night to Newt: “When he is right, he is great. The ongoing problem is when he is wrong. But tonight he was right — about a lot, and said it better than anyone.” Newt showed his Tea Party side: I think it’s very important for us to look at job creation. As a young member of Congress, I worked with President Ronald Reagan. We passed...